Board launches campaign to help women overcome FGM trauma

Anti-FGM Board Chairperson Ipato Surum during during a media breakfast at a Nairobi hotel. [Courtesy]

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl on the October 11, 2024, the Anti-FGM Board will launch a campaign dubbed “Dear Daughter” in Kajiado county to sensitise mothers to stop passing on the FGM trauma to their daughters.

Anti-FGM Board CEO Bernadette Loloju said the campaign will encourage mothers who underwent the cut to write letters to their daughters and protect them from the harmful practice. The letter will read, “Dear daughter, even though I went through FGM trauma, I will not let you go through the same…”

“Mothers are better placed to protect their daughters than anybody else because we cannot place a police officer in every household, but a mother can be the best protection for her daughter,” said Loloju.

The Anti-FGM Board CEO who was speaking during a media breakfast on Tuesday at a Nairobi hotel ahead of the International Day of the Girl Child celebration, emphasized the importance of mainstream and social media in eradicating FGM in the country.

She described FGM as a form of disability that has made many girls and women suffer, citing fistula cases and deformities caused by the practice, as well as death, and encouraged women who are suffering from fistula to speak out to get help.           

“We are the generation that will end it once and for all, and we can only achieve this through a collaborative effort. The media is extremely critical in the campaign to end FGM. Our children who are always using social media can also help spread the message TikTok and other platforms”, she said.

Chairperson of the Board, Ipato Surum, said the campaign will ensure mothers protect their girls from FGM, who will in turn become champions in the fight against the vice. Surum, who vividly remembered the day she underwent the cut, said it deprives girls of their health and dignity and would not wish any girl to go through the trauma.

“Young girls are not just passive recipients of collaborative efforts but are also architects of the future. When we listen to their stories, their aspirations, and their desires, we realize they have the solutions we seek,” she said.

Former Member of Parliament Sophia Abdi Noor also narrated her ordeal with FGM. She now fights for the rights of the marginalized in the community through gender equality campaigns. 

“I remember that morning very well. There were almost ten of us, and 4 of us died from the cut,” she said.

Abdi Noor was the first woman to be elected to the 10th Parliament from North Eastern.  

According to research released in 2023 by Nature Scientific Reports, more than 44,000 girls and women in Africa die every year from FGM. The study also reveals that FGM perpetuates obstetric complications, diminished sexual function, and enhanced physical and mental health complications among girls.

This year’s anti-FGM theme, “Girls’ Vision to a Future Free from Genital Mutilation,” is in line with the International Day of the Girl 2024 theme, “Girls’ Vision for the Future,” which aims to amplify the voices of girls, to give them the power and freedom to say no to FGM and early marriage and to work collectively to push their agenda forward and realise their vision.

According to the KDHS 2022 prevalence ranking of FGM in Kenya by counties, Wajir county leads with 97.2 per cent, Mandera (95.9), Marsabit (82.), Kisii (77.3), Samburu (75.6), Nyamira (74. 7), Isiolo (66), Tana River (60.1), and Narok (51), while the least is Busia with 0.1 per cent

FGM includes clitoridectomy, which is the partial or total removal of the clitoris or the prepuce; excision, which is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora, and infibulation, which is the narrowing of the vaginal orifice with the creation of a covering seal by cutting and appositioning the labia minora or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris.

The Anti-FGM Board is a semi-autonomous government agency in the Ministry of Public Service and Gender that was established in December 2013 following the enactment of the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2011.

The board’s mandate includes designing, supervising, and coordinating public awareness programmes against FGM. The board also advises the Government on matters relating to FGM and the implementation of the Anti-FGM Act.